Turned Tables
by quietpagan
Summary: One-shot AU were April is the one with the crush, not Donatello. Inspired by keepmeposted25. Rated T for language.


Inspired by the AU posted by keepmeposted25 on tumblr, about _April_ being the one with the crush, not Donnie.

Some of the lines are obviously taken from the first episode of TMNT, which I do not own.

* * *

"Hey, guys," said Donnie, suddenly pointing to the street below. "Look at _that!"_

 _That_ was two humans, an adult male and an adolescent female, both with fire-orange hair. They were walking closely and casually enough that he estimated some sort of close familial relationship, most like _ly_ _father and daughter, based on their resembling features and unusual shade of hair. Both are pale, the man possibly anemic, both are ectomorphs -_  
"Woah, who are those guys?"  
Donatello was wrenched from his thoughts as Leo drew his attention to a van skidding in front of the pair. A group of men, completely identical to one another -

 _completely_ _identical, that doesn't happen with twins or triplets…_

-approached the two. The girl clutched her father's arm with fear on her face while the man stuttered nervously, and it was the fear that drove Donatello into action.

"We've got to help them," he said, ready to lunge forward. He noticed that Raph and Mikey were moving to follow, but Leo stayed still.

"Splinter's instructions were very clear, Donnie," said Leo. "We're supposed to stay _clear_ of people. And _bathrooms."_

"Thought you wanted to be a hero," said Raph mockingly. "Since when do heroes ask for permission?"

"Well, they…don't…"

"Exactly," said Raph. He and Donnie nodded at each other.

"Hold on, guys, we can't just jump in – "  
"Well, _I_ can," Donnie said, and leapt past Leo's outstretched arm, sliding down a fire escape ladder and jumping down to ground level.

The girl was calling for help; already her father had been knocked unconscious, and as Mikey and Raph fell in at Donnie's side he threw his staff like a javelin, knocking down the creepy man that had grabbed the girl. She flew through the air and he lunged to catch her, and when she looked up at him he smiled. She screamed.

Donnie screamed back, startled enough to drop her on the ground and throw up his arms defensively, but she didn't yell at him again. She was frozen where she had fallen _was she injured had he hurt her_ and her eyes were searching his face and body, making him feel uncomfortably exposed. But as he reached down for her hand she raised hers to meet him, and when he pulled her up she didn't shy away from him.

At that moment, of course, Michelangelo decided to _hit him on the head with his nunchucks_ , distracting him enough that the girl was taken again, and the van disappeared around the corner, the girl and her father steadily moving farther and farther away.

* * *

April tried everything to get herself and her dad out of their weird, glowing cell – yelling, screaming, kicking at anything she thought she could knock loose, threatening the creepy robot things that stomped past their window, attacking an expressionless guard (she swore he was another robot) – and nothing worked. The idea of sitting and doing nothing rankled her, but she plopped onto the bench beside her dad, leaning in for a hug. Underneath her anger and indignation, she was really scared. Getting kidnapped didn't often turn out well for those being taken, and they'd been taken by _alien brains in robot bodies._ She was _still_ trying to process _that_ one.

Not to even _mention_ the four… the…

April tensed and her dad drew her closer, taking it as fear. But she was more confused than anything – he hadn't seen the four _giant turtle boys with ninja weapons_ battling their kidnappers.  
Well, actually, they weren't really battling, more like doing _some_ impressive moves and then accidentally hitting each other, but it had been a valiant effort. And the one in the purple mask had caught her.

April's face heated up and she cringed in sudden, hot embarrassment. She hadn't felt so flustered since Jeremy Robins had asked her to the eighth-grade dance.

The reptilian teenager been extremely surprising and April was mortified that she had screamed in his face, but when he dropped her she'd had a better chance to get a look at him. He was extremely tall for how young he looked, and every one of his exposed limbs were covered in angular muscle. _Green_ angular muscle; she hadn't missed the hard turtle shell on his back, nor the plates covering his front. But when he smiled at her and reached out a hand – _three fingers –_ she'd looked into his flat, olive-green face and only one thought had rolled through her mind:

… _oh, no, he's hot…_

She flushed now as she remembered the casual strength he'd shown when effortlessly pulling her to her feet, and her father comfortingly rubbed her arm. For once, she wished she'd been put in a private cell.

A clamor outside of their door drew her attention and a green blur shot past the tiny window, before it came back and materialized as the turtle boy who had caught her. April's stomach gave a lurch and she clamored to her feet, by the window before she even meant to move.

"I found them," he shouted, looking over his shoulder before turning back to April.

"Don't worry, I'll have you out of there in no time," he said, giving her another determined smile.

"Okay, turtle guy," April choked out. He smiled at her _again_.

"Yeah. Terrapin, actually: red-eared slider. My name's Donatello."  
"Wow," April heard herself say. "That's a cool name."  
Donatello shrugged, pulling a panel of the wall off with one hand.

"I've always thought it was a bit cumbersome, actually. My brothers just call me Donnie. What's your name?"  
April swallowed down a dry throat.

"Uh, A-April," she said, suddenly aware that her father was right behind her and watching the entire exchange.

"Oh, that's pretty," said Donatello – _Donnie_ – and April couldn't help but grin. Another one of the turtle boys suddenly drew up to the cell door, knocking his arm into Donatello's shoulder.

"If you two ladies are done gossiping, we're kind of _in the middle of something,_ " he yelled, blocking a punch from a blue robot and kicking it into the opposite wall.

"I'm working, I'm working," said Donatello, gingerly pulling at a wire and cutting another with a small blade.

"Oh, for the love of – move it," said the other turtle, shoving in front of Donatello and stabbing at the lock.

Behind her, the wall suddenly opened, and several of the robots reached in and grabbed her and her dad before she even had time to yell. They were taken around the corner just as the cell door opened and she got a look at Donatello's surprised face.

"Donnatello!"  
 _He was right, it_ was _a bit cumbersome_

"Help!"  
April heard the sounds of fighting going on as she and her father were frog-marched through hallways and out of the building, but she didn't see anything of Donatello or the other turtle boys. A sharp feeling of despair shook through her as their captors walked them to the roof, where a helicopter was warming up. Where were they taking them? What were they going to do with them? What did they even want them _for –_ April's dad was a psychiatrist and she herself was still in high school, they hadn't _done_ anything!

April heard a faint ' _Donnie, go!'_ echoing over the concrete walls just as she was pushed into the helicopter and strapped in beside her dad, and as they began to take off she saw Donatello fly over the edge of the roof. Their eyes locked for a moment and he began to run, pulling a long staff from over his back – _no_ , _his shell, his shell –_ and for a moment it looked like he wasn't going to catch them, they were so high up already.

And then he _pole-vaulted to the helicopter._ Actually _pole-vaulted to the helicopter._

The chopper swung around in a circle over the roof and one of the blue robots opened a side door, the wind whipping through the body of the machine to drag at April and her dad. The robot aimed a gun outside.

"Oh, good," April heard Donatello yell. "For a minute there I thought this was going to be _easy!_ "

The robot shot a few times. April's heart was in her mouth _what if he got shot, what would happen to them, what if he was hurt_ and then the robot stopped, something green connecting and drawing back from its head; the face blew out a few sparks before April noticed an actual _throwing star_ embedded in the metal of its skull. It was pulled out of the helicopter, but shots still fired wildly, hitting the bottom of the machine. The helicopter lurched – and April was falling. Air rushing past her, forcing her lungs to empty, her eyes to tear, her heart to beat nearly to bursting, _this is it, I'm going to die, I'm actually going to die, I'm gonna die_ –

\- And then something solid pulled her tight, wrapped her up, and they skidded over one rooftop, slid down the edge of another, and finally landed on a third with a jarring _thud_.

"Are you okay?" asked Donatello.

He'd caught her. He'd jumped off a helicopter and _caught_ her.

April managed to catch her breath just as a horrifying realization flashed through her mind; her father wasn't with.

"Dad…"

She and Donatello looked back into the air; the helicopter rose higher and higher, and disappeared into the night.

Chills shot down April's spine. _Her dad was gone!_

She had no time to think about it as Donatello grabbed her hand and pulled her toward yells and gunshots, until they rounded a corner to see the alien robots battling the turtle boys and…a…giant _weed?_

" _What_ are they _doing_ ," Donatello exclaimed. "They're pushing him straight toward the power generator!"  
The turtle with the swords leapt on top of the generator, pulling out two throwing stars as the robots shot at the giant weed.

"That's incredibly _stupid!_ " he yelled. April literally had no idea what was going on.

"Or brilliant," Donatello mused, turning to grin at her. "Or both!"

The giant weed was fried as the robots fired upon it and the generator, causing it to explode. April happily could have gone her entire life without having chunks of dead plant-man falling all around her. The other three turtles ran towards them and they made their escape over the building walls, running back to the city until April nearly collapsed in front of a police station.

The rest of the night went exactly as well as it had previously: the police thought she was crazy, her aunt – a childless workaholic she only ever saw on holidays – was horrible at concealing how unenthusiastic she was at having a sudden houseguest, and there was no way that April could figure out how to get her dad back. The only highlight of the night was the visit Donatello and the others paid her, an hour after she had settled in at her aunt's. They weren't so strange to look at in the light that came from her window, settled and relaxed on the fire escape like they did this every night. Donatello promised to help her find her dad, and when he said it, it suddenly seemed possible.

"Thank you," she said, determination hardening in her bones. "But it's not your fight."

She hated to be under obligation to anyone – they may have saved her life, but she didn't want to bring them into something they had nothing to do with. Especially something so dangerous.

But Donatello put his hand over hers – huge, strange, and surprisingly warm – and when she looked in his eyes she saw the same determination.

"Yes it is," he said."

April was horrified to feel herself blushing and she quickly looked away, which he and the others took as dismissal. Out of the corner of her eye she watched him effortlessly scale the side of the building, until he stood on the roof and looked back at her. He waved and she returned it, and then he disappeared into the night.

 _Oh my god_ , she thought, jumping back in her room and pulling the window tightly shut. _I'm so screwed…_

* * *

The 'oh, no, he's hot' is from Spongebob.

I don't know if the 2012!turts are actually red-eared sliders, but the 2014!turts are, and I'm going with it.

The AU idea of April being the one with the crush came from keepmeposted25 on tumblr. It was beautiful and I had to jump on it.

This might actually end up being too shippy for me. I'm better with friendship and cuddles, not crushes and romance.


End file.
